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An Arizona police department will conduct an investigation into the bloody arrest of a 54-year-old grandfather during a Black Friday sale at a Walmart, an assistant police chief said Saturday.

Jerald Newman, 54, was released Saturday from a Maricopa County jail, his wife, Pamela, told CNN. He has been charged with resisting arrest and shoplifting.

"(He is) as good as expected ... but he is emotionally and mentally a wreck," she said.

Newman was among a throng of shoppers crammed into a Buckeye, Arizona, Walmart soon after it opened late the night of Thanksgiving.

"They were just letting people in; there was nowhere to walk," said his daughter, Berneta Sanchez, who was also in the store. "Teenagers and adults were fighting for these games, taking them away from little kids and away from my father."

The suspect's grandson, Nicholas Nava, told CNN affiliate KNXV that Newman had grabbed one video game and put it under his shirt so that others jostling for the game didn't take it from him. One person alerted a police officer, who then approached Newman.

David Chadd, a CNN iReporter from Las Vegas, was among the crowd shopping for video games set up in the Walmart's grocery section. He said Newman "was not resisting" arrest as he was led away from the crowd by a police officer.

That officer, Chadd said, then suddenly hooked the suspect around the leg, grabbed him and "slammed him face first into the ground."

"It was like a bowling ball hitting the ground, that's how bad it was," he said.

Video, recorded by Chadd and later posted on CNN's iReport, shows an apparently unconscious Newman head-down on the floor in a pool of blood. As he's turned over, Buckeye police officers appear to try to revive him -- at which point his face, covered mostly in blood, is revealed.

Several voices, apparently those of fellow shoppers, are heard saying, "Why would you throw him down so hard? All he did was shoplifting and you threw him down like that?" Another person says, "They threw him down. He wasn't doing anything wrong."

Two citizens then appear to come to Newman's aid by applying paper towels to the man's nose. Chadd estimated Newman was knocked out for about 10 minutes, all the while gushing blood and handcuffed.

Buckeye Assistant Police Chief Larry Hall said Saturday that Newman's case is "basically in the court's hands right now, as far as the resisting arrest and shoplifting goes."

The department will conduct an investigation to assess whether the actions of the police officer involved in the arrest were "within reason," based on "our policy and also the law." He said that probe would happen soon, adding it was "days away."

"We may have an independent agency conduct the inquiry, just to show transparency," Hall said.

As to the criminal charges, Todd Nolan -- the attorney representing Newman -- said his office will conduct discovery procedures Monday with police "to gather evidence proving my client is innocent."

The suspect himself plans to speak to the media later next week, his lawyer said.

Walmart spokeswoman Ashley Hardie said the retail giant was aware of the incident.

"We are concerned whenever there is an incident involving a customer at one of our stores," Hardie said. "We are in contact with the local police and are sharing any information we have with them."

Sanchez described her father as "a really nice man," saying he is a custom furniture maker who preaches through the California prison system. He has raised his grandson from birth and, even while in the hospital, Sanchez said the boy was her father's chief concern.

Whatever happens, Sanchez vowed that next year she won't be shopping in the wee hours of the Friday morning after Thanksgiving.

"I will never leave my house again on Black Friday, because I don't want to put my daughter through that again," she said, noting her daughter was there to see police standing over her bloody grandfather. "I'd rather stay home. And if they have Black Friday, they need more security." http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/26/justice/arizona-walmart-arrest/index.htm
l are no words. the bastards.

(There's another of your trickle-down-tyranny episodes, Frem)

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at $11.4 billion, were the largest ever

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rc317sg shot this video of a Black Friday shopper at a Walmart in Southington, CT, being tasered by police. 'It was unclear from my position what exactly happened with the man and why he was being detained, however, you could hear bystanders yelling things like, "stop!" "That's not necessary!"' he said. 'This was my first Black Friday shopping experience, and I'll never forget what I saw. You see sides of people that they, themselves, didn't even know existed.'

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Violence marred Black Friday shopping in at least seven states, including California, where police say a woman doused fellow shoppers with pepper spray in a bid to snag a discounted video game console.
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Incidents also occurred in South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, New York, Alabama and Connecticut, with most of the reported incidents happening at or near Walmart stores.
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While no deaths were reported in this year's shopping, authorities said they handled fights, shootings and other incidents through the morning.

Psychologist Jeff Gardere, in an appearance Friday on CNN, put some of the blame on retailers for staging sales that encourage hyper-competitive behavior among shoppers who may be desperate because of the poor economy.

"They shouldn't be psyching them up so much and using all sorts of psychological tactics to get them to feed into this desperation and competitive spirit," he said.

"I think people are whipped into a frenzy, physically, psychologically," he said.

In San Leandro, California, police had one man in custody and another was hospitalized after a 1:45 a.m. shooting in a Walmart parking lot.

"It was a robbery gone bad," police Sgt. Mike Sobek told reporters. "The victim's family fought with the robbers. They were able to detain one suspect. We are not sure if that suspect is the shooter, but we do have one person in custody right now."

In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, police said two people suffered injuries in an apparent armed robbery attempt after they left a Walmart store around 1 a.m. Friday, CNN affiliate WMBF reported.

Would-be robbers struck a man on the head and shot a woman in the leg before another shopper displayed a gun and the assailants fled, the station said, citing Myrtle Beach Police Capt. Kevin Heins. The woman was taken to a hospital for treatment, he said.

Sheriff's deputies in Fayetteville, North Carolina, were looking for two men after shots were fired about 2 a.m. at a shopping mall.

And in Kinston, North Carolina, an off-duty officer working security at a Walmart sprayed shoppers with pepper spray in an effort to stop a disturbance there, WITN reported, citing police Sgt. Roland Davis.

Customer Angel Bunting told the station it happened while people were waiting to buy discount cell phones and a man fell into a display. She said she thought security believed there was a fight, according to WITN.

Police arrested a man in a Kissimmee, Florida, Walmart on a resisting arrest charge after an early morning altercation at the jewelry counter, according to the police department.

In Rome, New York, a brawl broke out in the electronics department at a Walmart moments after midnight, CNN affiliate WSTM reported, citing the Oneida County Sheriff's Office. Two people were taken to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries, the station reported.

Police in Florence, Alabama, said they had to use a stun gun -- twice -- on a Walmart customer, CNN affiliate WAFF reported. The 22-year-old man was charged with public intoxication, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest around 11 p.m. Thursday, an hour after the store opened its doors for Black Friday, WAFF reported, citing police.

A picture of the incident distributed on Twitter shows the man lying face down in an aisle, the officer atop him with a knee on his back.

And in Southington, Connecticut, iReporter Ryan Casale said he witnessed police using a stun gun on a man at the Walmart store where he was shopping. He said he wasn't sure what was happening or why, but said the event left an impression on him. http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/25/business/money-black-friday-incidents/in
dex.html?hpt=hp_bn2, consumerism! America at its best... Gawd bless Walmart. What WOULD we do without them?

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Thing is, this is what the stores who pull this shit WANTED, chaos, carnage, scandal - and the free media attention/advertisement that comes with it.

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Reports from across the country show that a disproportionate number of arrests, fights, shootings, and other acts of Black Friday violence occurred at WalMarts. http://www.huliq.com/12092/walmart-wars-black-friday-bomb-threats-shoo
tings-stunnings-and-sprayings were also bomb threats, tasering of customers by security guards, In my opinion, Walmat might best embody American consumerism fed by capitalist greed at the expense of its employees, vendors and the community. Just sayin'I know the terms that will be applied to me by those on the right fo saying that (socialist? communist? go for it), but the facts are there for anyone who chooses to see them, mostly indicated by the various lawsuits. Their egregious nature has been shown when it comes to the corporation's foreign product sourcing, treatment of product suppliers, environmental practices, the use of public subsidies, and the company's security policies (of which we just had perfect illusrations).

Examples abound which illustrate Walmart's policy of selling merchandise at such low costs that competitors have tried to sue it for predatory pricing (intentionally selling a product at low cost in order to drive competitors out of the market). Even Mexico investigated Walmart for "monopolistic practices" prompted by charges that the retailer pressured suppliers to sell goods below cost or at prices significantly less than those available to other stores. Walmart won, of course; they usually do. But when Germany did the same and WON, Walmart closed its German stores. It's well known for forcing its suppliers into self-defeating practices.

When it comes to its employees, they're infamous for low wages, poor working conditions, inadequate health care, as well as issues involving the company's strong anti-union policies. In my opinion, Walmart represents one of the most embarrassing illustrations of "free market" as it is manipulated in America.

So yes, in my opinion they don't mind the fuss, as it equates in people's minds that this place must be really hot, to get people so riled up and competitive. If they didn't like it, or it hurt their bottom line, they could easily take steps to minimize or avoid it:

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As the sales get earlier and earlier, it would appear that instead of alleviating the mania and the customer crushes, retailers like WalMart are only expanding the time in which the violence can -- and apparently inevitably -- will occur. http://www.huliq.com/12092/walmart-wars-black-friday-bomb-threats-shoo
tings-stunnings-and-sprayings]

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At the exit, she was stopped by a Loss Prevention employee on her way out of the store. The employee told her "I think you know what this is for," to which she responded that she did not. He forced her to accompany him to a room inside the store. She asked him if he was a police officer, and he said he was not. He proceeded to detain her while calling the police. When she asked why he was holding her, he replied that had the right to keep her, and asked her "Haven't you ever heard of a citizen's arrest?"

During the course of her detention by Wal-Mart, the employee told her to show him her identification. She was standing at the push side of her shopping cart and the employee was at the front end of the cart. She reached for her purse to get her ID, and the employee grabbed her by the arm and threw her to the ground. He pinned her down with his knee in her back, and proceed to hold her in this position for several minutes while yelling at her. She tried to explain that he told her to show him her ID and that's what she was doing. He handcuffed her, pulled her up, and then began to yell at her some more. The line of yelling consisted of things such as "You can take this to court and contest it, but you will lose, because I am the best loss prevention person in the Midwest" (she had not suggested anything of the sort, he was pre-emptive) and "You're just a thief." He was close enough that his spit was hitting her in the face while she was being yelled at. The tackle caused her to suffer a laceration on her knee, a deep muscle bruise on her arm, and discomfort in her shoulder. http://ask.metafilter.com/39809/How-much-physical-abuse-can-WalMart-Co
ps-legally-dish-during-a-detainment-for-suspected-shoplifting the end, after she was carted off to jail:

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After being held for 14 hours, she was released without any charges being filed and no citations issued. During her time, no one told her she was under arrest. No one told her what crime she was being accused of. No one told her of her rights. No one told her what was going to happen to her. No one told her anything. She was denied access to an attorney .

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So apparently the police there are no better.

Needless to say, I have rather strong feelings about Walmart.